


Miscommunications

by ALittleBirdieToldMeASecret



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (mostly stuff that might show up if I continue this), Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Depression, Disfigurement, Eating Disorders, Gen, I honestly have no idea what compelled me to start this but you know here we are, Implied/Referenced Suicide, I’ll also add character tags if I continue, Medical Procedures, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Suicidal Ideation, Trauma, horrortale is not nice folks, implied cannibalism (past)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22996774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALittleBirdieToldMeASecret/pseuds/ALittleBirdieToldMeASecret
Summary: Your best isn’t always enough.  It’s something most monsters learned the hard way.  But for the skeleton brothers, it seems their best is never enough.  And that’s the only thing that seems to be the only constant across each and every alternate universe.
Relationships: Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23





	Miscommunications

The quiet padding of slippered footsteps echoed through the hallway.Pacing anxiously, two sets of eyes were trained on him as the skeleton kept his on the ground. 

It had been close to an hour now, since the crying from behind the door had tapered off.They’d estimated it would take...a while.Normally, he was a patient monster.But when it involved his brother, when it involved being in a lab room without him, when it involved the idea of strangers tampering with...

It was unbelievably difficult.

“MAYBE YOU COULD SIT DOWN FOR A LITTLE WHILE?YOU’RE GOING TO WEAR YOUR SHOES OUT LIKE THAT.”

Stopping at the voice, his eyelight flicked up to the skeleton smiling nervously at him.It was still hard to look him in the eyes.

“he’s got a point, eggshell, yer not doin’ yerself any favors.”The shorter skeleton beside the other had clear sympathy in his gaze, despite the teasing nickname.

“i’m fine.”

“hi ‘fine’, i’m sans.” Flinching at the new voice, not dissimilar to his own, he glanced over his should to find their newest addition ambling towards them.

“SANS!HAVE YOU COME TO WAIT WITH US?”The tallest of the four was quick to his feet at the approach of his brother, smile brightening significantly.

“you know i’d never miss an opportunity to sit and do nothin’, bro.”

“DON’T BE RUDE, SANS!YOU ALSO CAME TO SUPPORT SCARY SANS!”

A mittened hand clasped his shoulder as his lookalike paused on his way to the others, “goes without sayin’.”

Taking a seat beside the pointy version of them, Sans turned a genuine smile back to him.

“how’re ya holdin’ up?”

Strained smile flinching, his singular red eyelight flickered out.Sans’s brother tapped his fingers together anxiously while the third lookalike focused on everything but him.

“i’m doing swell.” shifting back on his heels, his smile widened, “you know how it is when two people you’ve only known for a couple of days tell you they’re taking the brother you’ve struggled to keep alive for years in for emergency surgery because his entire body is so fucked up he can’t even breathe right.”

Magic reigniting in his eye socket, he strolled closer to the skeleton still standing, a bead of sweat rolling down his skull as his frown deepened.

“but i do appreciate the company.better than having  _no body_ , right? ” He rested a reassuring hand on the arm of the monster now beside him, who quickly reciprocated, clasping his shoulder.

“HE’LL BE OKAY, SCARY SANS, I HAVE THE UTMOST CONFIDENCE IN THE DOCTORS!SO IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN THEM, JUST BELIEVE IN ME!!”

Letting out a soft laugh, he closed his eyes, “alright.i think i can do that.”

Technically, this Papyrus was the one to trigger everything happening right now.But as angry as he was that he couldn’t fix his brother himself, none of it was directed at this younger version they’d met recently.He had only been trying to help, after all.

He couldn’t have anticipated finally finding freedom from the hell their Underground had become.Let alone finding it in an alternate universe.Two impossibilities wrapped up with a tattered red scarf, tied in a neat little bow.

So many strange, intriguing variables at play.

After arriving to this new world, he hadn’t believed it at first.Perhaps a hunger fueled fever dream?Or maybe he’d finally gone around the bend.But after two weeks of waking up on the same surface, satiated, safe, wrapped in his brother’s arms, it started to taunt him.Could it truly be their reality?

Others were here, as well.Monsters spanning many alternate universes, though any other versions of themselves seemed to gravitate toward each other.The vast majority of the ‘verses were centered around Undergrounds like theirs’ used to be.Safe, hopeful...none of the others had been touched by such a foul future.Some hadn’t even met a 7th child.

Even the monsters from the harsher worlds showed a capacity for kindness, sometimes even in spite of themselves.It really was all too good to be true.But the longer it lasted, the more he prayed to the stars that it could be.

They’d been dubbed the nicknames ‘Stain’ and ‘Crutch’ by the others.With their approval, of course.But ‘eggshell’ was fast replacing his own.

They’d grown close to their rescuers, ‘Sans and Papyrus’, staying in their house, weary to leave the safety and reliability it had provided them thus far.Doubly so for his brother.Since being here, having the chance to eat whenever hungry, and sleep whenever tired, the haze of insanity that had slowly possessed the younger skeleton years ago was lifting.

He was anxious and antsy, scared by his own reflection, realizing it was no longer his face looking back at him.He wouldn’t admit it outright, but he was struggling desperately to cope with the things he’d done and what it had done to him.

...the things he was tricked into doing.

Two different Papyruses and a particularly odd Sans had grown quite fond of his brother; encouraging him, reading things his eyes no longer could for him, washing his face so as not to upset his fragile teeth when his hands could not function.They were tender with him in a way that was never condescending...almost like they could read his mind.Of course, it made sense since they were all practically the same person, right?

Adversely, he couldn’t ever tell what was going on inside the skulls of his counterparts.

But regardless.Things had been improving.They even went to a park last week.At night, granted, but it was a good first step.Until everything started tumbling backwards.

It all happened so quickly.His brother had been upstairs with the younger version of himself in his room, as per routine.They often times spent hours up there, sometimes accompanied by others, sometimes not.This time, it was only them.Nothing unusual.Not until a blood curdling scream shook every window in the house.

Both he and Sans were at the door in a soulbeat, unknowingly flying into the room to find something none of them were prepared to deal with.

His brother was on the floor, compactly curled in on himself, while his counterpart crouched over him, sputtering apologies, afraid to rest his hands anywhere near the other at the risk of doing any more harm. 

At first, they couldn’t figure out what had happened, but when Papyrus regained some composure, he hurriedly explained that they’d decided to remove his broken, blood stained battle body in exchange for something cleaner, softer.Why that would evoke such a reaction was a worrying question, one the other wouldn’t need to answer as his brother started to force himself back to his feet.

The three of them moved to support him, shifting him to the bed as he huffed with effort.Then, he saw it.There, at the seam along the side of his makeshift armor, was a glimpse into their attempt.The cracked, malformed plastic housed a horrifyingly mutilated rib cage, fused together in places.His chest had become ingrown in the fixed outfit as his body had changed over the years.

Much like his teeth, any disturbance was very painful for him, so a good hard yank probably felt like taking an axe to the chest.

The other two were quick to piece together what he knew almost instantly, and before he knew what was happening, the Undyne who wore normal glasses and a friend of hers he’d never met in his own universe were in the room, examining his brother like some sort of experiment.

If it hadn’t been for the laid back Papyrus, ‘Stretch’, and the sweaty, sharp toothed Sans, ‘Red’, keeping him occupied in the living room, he probably wouldn’t have even let it transpire.After what Sans insisted was 40 minutes, despite feeling like hours, the doctors decided he needed to ‘come in’ for a better diagnosis.

There was a very cruel irony in one of his worst nightmares being realized by his own past transgressions.And the next day only brought worse news.

He sat quietly in the room, his brother’s eyes never off of him for more than a minute as they took X-rays and samples and measured him from odd angles.They made him stand and walk and open his mouth like some sort of puppet.

But he sat quietly, almost unaware of the mittened hand holding his own, the large blue eyelights alternating perceptive glances between him and the ‘patient’.A few of his friends waited outside, as well.He could tell Papyrus had wanted to join them inside, but his conscious was still unclean from blaming himself for opening this can of worms.

Once they finished, and he could’ve sworn they were deliberately taking longer than necessary, they called him into a separate room and asked if he wanted his brother present.Talking about him like it wasn’t his body they’d been poking and prodding for the past two hours.

Insisting they both be present was a mistake.

Glasses Undyne tried to be as delicate as the situation allowed, but as the list of things so dreadfully wrong stretched their time to three hours, it became clear this had no easy solution.

Ultimately, their only options were surgery related.As much as he despised the thought of it.His brother, his Papyrus, was scared, as anyone would be.They were planning on completely restructuring his entire body, after all.That, or live the rest of his life in this awkward, uncomfortable catastrophe of a body he had now.

And it was all his fault.

The alternative at the time might have only been death, but he’d never know.What if it hadn’t?What if his efforts had been in vain?They’d never know and he’d spend the rest of his life trying to forgive himself for what he’d done.Lord knows his brother didn’t see it that way.He didn’t even know the truth, and it wasn’t in him to blame his older brother even if he did.

The surgery would take a while.Magic based surgery was nigh unheard of amongst most of the universes, the most drastic medical procedure ever needed was usually braces.But it did not mean the practice was extinct.On the rare occasion something affected a monster’s soul, something that didn’t dust them, it could be nursed away with no further intervention, or ignored, as it did no real harm to the monster themself.

But this?This was something else entirely.For a monster’s soul, and thusly their body, to be so altered from such heinous acts was irreparable.So they would do what they could to make this form as comfortable as possible.

In this particular appointment, they were starting with the biggest obstacle.Removing his armor and reinforcing the structure of his body.They used concentrated green magic as a anesthetic, concentrated blue magic as a bonding agent, samples of his own magic, and even some of his to try and keep the monster stable as they, to put it bluntly, broke every bone from the hips up and reset it.Ribs, sternum, collar, shoulders, neck.Everything.

His spine was not safe from change either.They were relocating all the segments that had long since pushed themselves out of place and temporarily cementing it to a brace.

None of these things would cause him any small amount of pain.Blue magic could take the edge off, but healing magic was not an absolute solution.He was going to stay on a steady IV of green until the pain was endurable.Then he was to begin ‘physical therapy’ to reorient himself.

In theory, there was no reason for them to fail.But it also ran a very real risk of taking quite a psychological toll.And the greater the impact on his psyche, the greater the impact on his soul.He could very well Fall before he could adapt.There was a painfully real chance that, despite everything they’d managed to overcome, this could be the final nail in the coffin.And they were still planning two more procedures afterwards.

It was too much to think about.How could he have expected freedom could be their downfall?He wasn’t ready for-

The pressure of something against his hand snapped his focus back to the hallway.

“-figured you probably forgot to...” Sans was in front of him now, holding something in his hand, waiting for him to take it, “eggshell, you still in there?”

He took the small package, blinking as he attempted to see what it was, “yeah, yeah...really gotta do something about this hole in my head, or my thoughts ‘re just gunna keep floating out of it.”

It was some type of granola bar or something.The habit of not eating until he knew his brother had would take more than a few weeks to break.But the others had picked up on it fairly quickly, reminding him regularly.It made sense they’d be even more concerned now.

“OH, YES!THAT REMINDS ME!I HAVE ALSO BROUGHT ALONG SOME PRE-PREPARED SPAGHETTI AND APPLE SLICES!!AND LADY TORIEL HAS SENT ALONG SANDWICHES AS WELL!”Papyrus was quite happy to have something to contribute as he finagled his backpack off and retrieved two lunchboxes, “WE WEREN’T QUITE SURE HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE...” his voice tapered as he averted his gaze.There was obviously still conflict in his heart about being present.However misguided it was.

The only one to blame here was him.

**Author's Note:**

> Just wanted to write some multiverse angst revolving around the HT brothers tbh. I would like to finish it one day. Maybe. Who knows.


End file.
